Author Archive | Adam Terko

A cold and snowy weekend in the shadow of a former alpine ski resort…there’s not much more you could ask for in terms of setting for a race event.

The team remained separated as we did not gather for any organized travel or lodging, but several athletes came

Emma strides underneath the former ski lift. 

down with their families on Friday to ski the trails before the weekend. After a snowless drive through the agricultural belt of Vermont, where condition outside of Rutland had me wondering if there was going to be any snow at all, things got white. Prospect is located at 2,200′ which only just surpasses Bolton (2000′) for the highest elevation Nordic center in the Vermont. You could tell on this day, as the drive uphill on Route 9 was a full-on whiteout of big flakes, cars off the road, and plow trucks furiously sanding up and down.

The parking lot was clearly going to be a struggle, and after skiing we’d spend our fair share of time pushing stranded cars with bald tires back out to the road…but first some of us got to ski in the fresh fresh powder! It was a beautiful situation. The Nordic trails are interwoven with alpine trails which makes it all-too-easy to sneak in some turns to get back to the stadium…but mostly we resisted and instead focused on checking out the classic sprint course for the following day which consisted of two brutally-steep herringbone sections and a long gradual slog before a furious downhill descent back to the finish that was so steep and speedy that you didn’t even need to double pole to the line.

The trailer arrived (thanks Barker!) later that evening and after a Zoom team meeting it was time for Room Pasta (for coach) and mental preparation for the weekend.

More snow continued to fall overnight and everyone woke up to a few fresh inches, some groomed-but-fluffy track surfaces, and TWO sprint qualifiers only 20 minutes apart.

Anders aka Shaun White and The Flying Tomato is out and hammering!

Ginny finished in 2nd place for U16s but the announcer was much more concerned with letting everyone know about her first place snot icicle

Speaking of unique awards, Hanna was also given a brownie from the kitchen after winning the most spectacular crash award when she fell and stabbed a hole right through her ski

It was a good day for sprinting and a great learning experience. Often in sprints if you don’t make the cutoff for the rounds, your day is done. But since everyone got to race twice in a pretty condensed time-frame, it meant racers still got to experience at least one more go at the course. This was great too because it meant skiers could analyze how the first run went while it was fresh in their minds, and try to tackle things even better the second time around.

While the analysis and learning experiences were a key factor, a great results highlight was Virginia, Esther, and Julia going 2-3-4 in the women’s 2nd round!

Things got quite cold Saturday night, and the snow was replaced with sun. The van thermometer read a brisk ZERO degrees when I arrived at the venue at 7am: thank god for the wax trailer combination of electric space heater AND mini propane heater…they were both gunning full bore that morning.

The temps only rose a little bit but the sun was warming the parts of everyone’s faces not covered by a mask (so the upper cheek area) and my gosh this might’ve been the best classic ski conditions we have seen in…years? You could get kick, you could glide, the tracks were harder than iron yet the snow was as smooth as silk.

The 5km for the U16 boys was the first and coldest race of the day, and Taylor (fresh off a win the previous day at a Craftsbury biathlon race) led the way for the MNC crew. In the U16 women’s race, Julia and Virginia went 2-3 and continued what looks to be a continued battle in the overall rankings with SMS’s Miley Bletzer.

Julia has embraced Bliz sunglasses life! Remember, use code “MNC2021” at enjoywinter.com for 30% off!

In the men’s race there were two laps to contend with, but the trails made for ideal striding and it was not the kind of day to feel like a slog. Silas came back raving about the skis, the course, and the conditions, unable to contain his excitement for how good things were out there!

Emma Crum with a huge result in 10th!

Special shoutout to Geo who competed in only his second weekend of ski racing EVER and has gotta be one of the most natural skiers to ever clip into a pair of bindings. The Pugs were also represented by “MNC South” member Dave Johnston who came over from Brattleboro to don the race suit and put some younger racers in their place!

In the women’s race, Ava showed she was ready to fly off to Finland one week from that day with an absolutely staggering win by almost a minute and a half. That is an astonishing margin to pull off in a field with this many strong Juniors.

Rose skied the most consistent two laps of the day, both within a second of one another, to land in 4th place for one of her best classic races ever. Isabelle Serrano, who trains with MNC and Craftsbury, capped a great weekend in 9th, followed closely by new MNC skier Emma Crum with a breakout race in 10th!

A photo of Ava from Justin Beckwith. This was the LAST race of the day and just look at those tracks!

Of course, there were tons of racers out there for the club, as we have quickly become the largest group at these Vermont Cup races. Yes, it’s true…we are the “CSU” of this race league at this point. There once was a time when Sara and I would race in the Eastern Cups ourselves because there just weren’t a ton of kids to wax and work with, so why not just compete too? Now that is unthinkable…there’s just way to much action! The Pug squad is rolling 25-30 skiers deep each weekend and it’s so darn exciting to see. Here are some more photos!

Danny applying binder wax…don’t worry, there are no fluoros to be found although masks are more prevalent than ever!

Finley Barker is ready to rock and now has 2 EC weekends under her!

Coaches in a rare moment of pause

Mackenzie knows that sometimes you get a bloody nose but you just can’t let that interfere with your race

Vermont Cup #1: Craftsbury, VT

Discerning ski fans do some regular reading of langrenn.com, essentially the Norwegian version of fasterskier.com. Of course, Google translate helps with this process. A few weeks ago an article about a race in a Norwegian snowstorm referred to the whiteout, via translation, as “Jotunheim’s wind balls” and ever since it has been a term that Mike Millar and I use whenever possible. Yes, we are both over 30 years old…

We haven’t actually seen much of this weather this year, except for when it decided to show up right at the start of the men’s classic race this weekend, part 1 of the “Vermont Cup” race series, effectively the Eastern Cup of the COVID season. After a calm start to the day, with only light snow impeding our 4:30AM drive to Craftsbury, Mike and I set up the wax cabin and got to work preparing skis when, soon after, the rest of our awesome coaching contingent arrived.

All was calm…skies and trails alike. Then the snow started. Jotunheim’s wind balls were dumping down at a furious rate, and at 32 degrees it meant think sloppy snow all over the place. Chaos! No klister worked. No hardwax worked. Not even our secret “Blellow” homemade kickwax mixture worked. It was time to make what are called “hairies” and give them a try, along with zeros. We did not use fluoro treatment, but found that the Toko Base Performance spray used over the kick zone had the same effect of reducing moisture/icing and keeping the glide good.

The first group out was the U18 and U16 boys, who raced on these hairies and zeros and had good reports. But then,

Rosie striding up the hill with Lydia in pursuit!

the snow turned to rain and it was back to the klister! The girls almost universally raced on klister, with a few on zeros.

It was a good day to see how our whole group handled this crazy situation…not only was it one of the first big races, it also required a lot of solo efforts because groups could not gather, coaches could not be grouped up with skiers out on the course or helping things along…skiers needed to be very self-sufficient and responsible and I think everyone did a great job! From first-time Eastern Cup racers to seasoned vets, this was a class act of a crew.

We had 29 racers, possibly our largest-ever contingent to an Eastern Cup. In that group we had one skier doing his first-ever Nordic race, and another who is heading to Junior World Championships next month. How cool is it to think that MNC is able to play a role in that whole spectrum?

Taking the WIN in the U16 women’s race was Virginia Cobb, who has been poised for a breakout race like this since the end of last season. I’ve been a part of this club now to have known Virginia since she was basically in a car seat, and seeing her really tap into her diligent training side (in the off-season) and her competitive side (in race season) has been awesome to watch. The U16 girls in general were on a tear, with Julia Thurston following-up in 3rd, Esther Cuneo in 4th, and Rosie Brown in 6th.

The open women featured competition from 5 pro skiers as well as the Junior contingent. Ava managed to sneak ahead of one of those pros, and finish 4th overall behind Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2, who then boarded a plane to the Lahti World Cup this weekend), U23 World Champs competitor Alex Lawson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project/Middlebury), and recent UVM grad and current Craftsbury Green Racing Project athlete Margie Freed. All down the results sheet, however, were strong MNC performances including many of these U18 ladies racing in their first 10km distance.

Our men’s team was bolstered by on-break college skiers like Silas Brown (Bowdoin) and Charles Martell (St Mikes) and Geo DuBrosse who looked like a seasoned racer in not only his first 10km but his first Nordic race ever! The U16 squad began what looks like a long-term battle with a contingent of strong SMS U16 boys…this young MNC squad is going places! Brady, Taylor, Anders, Niko, Rye, Carl, Jack…remember those names!

Thanks to all the athletes who competed in this race and showed some great maturity and a continued diligence in COVID awareness and care. Thanks to the parents who helped facilitate a smooth event. And thanks to the coaches who helped make great skis, provide great athlete support, and awesome attitudes.

Next week, we are cautiously approaching the follow-up to VT Cup #1 with VT Cup #2 in Bennington. Stay tuned!

Congrats to MNC Junior Ava Thurston, who was recently nominated to represent America at the Junior World Ski Championships in Vuokatti, Finland next month!

Link to official press release

Last year Ava qualified for the U18 Scandinavian Cup team competing in Falun, Sweden. This nomination to Junior Worlds is yet another step forward, and we believe it is the FIRST time a current MNC athlete has qualified for this level of competition. Way to go Ava!